Ali smiled and handed him a plate. “No, you can’t.”
They loaded up their plates with food and carried them over to her table. It was then she realized they had a problem. She'd forgotten about the project she’d been working on at her dining room table. Her canvas and paints were covering every inch of the wood surface. “Um.”
She was still contemplating what to do when he walked over and began looking at what she’d painted.
“You did this?” he asked.
“Yes. Sorry. I forgot I’d left my paints out.” She set her plate on one of the chairs and began loading her paints into a shoebox.
Daniel held his plate in one hand and picked up the canvas to examine it. “I didn’t know you liked to paint.”
“It helps me relax.”
He nodded. “We all need something that helps us deal with stress. For me, it’s swimming.”
She hadn’t known he liked to swim, but looking at him now, she could see it. He was trim and fit, but not in a way that said he spent hours every day in a gym. Ali could imagine him in a pair of Speedos, his naked chest heaving as water droplets danced along his chest after doing laps in the pool.
Her sex pulsed and she pressed her thighs together. She turned her back to him as she felt her cheeks heat. “I’m gonna put these in the other room. Be right back.”
Rushing down the hall to the spare bedroom, she placed the box of paints on the shelf in her closet and took a moment to try and catch her breath. She used to think being around him at the club was difficult. Not that it was easy. Especially when she saw him go upstairs with another submissive. But the more she was around him, the more she wanted him.
“Ali? Are you all right, sweetheart?”
She closed her eyes at his endearment. He’d called her that twice before and every time it nearly broke her heart. She knew he didn’t mean it the way it sounded—like she was his. “Yeah. Just putting the paints away.”
Ali felt him as he approached, then he was turning her to face him. She opened her eyes and got sucked into the depths of his gaze.
Daniel cupped the side of her face and she leaned into his touch. It was sad how much she cherished these moments. They didn’t mean the same to him as they did to her, but it didn’t matter. She’d take what she could get even if that made her pathetic.
He took a step closer, her chest touching his. She could feel his breath against her face as he exhaled.
Time seemed to stop as they stood there. He didn’t remove his hand and she feared with every breath she took he’d stop touching her.
He rubbed the pad of his thumb along her cheek several times, then slid his hand to the back of her neck, tilting her head up. She saw something flash in his eyes a moment before his lips caressed hers.
Ali’s heart stopped for a moment before restarting in double time. A desperate whimper left her throat as the feel of his lips spread white hot lightning through her veins. She wanted more and she wasn’t beneath begging for it. Not when it felt like this.
A groan tore from his chest a split second before his other hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her flush against him and his mouth crashed over hers. Ali’s hands gripped his waist, holding on tight. His lips glided against hers with the right mix of heat and tenderness, his tongue teasing the seam on her lips, enticing her tongue to come out and play.
She could feel his hard length pressing against her stomach. The urge to press against it, to get closer to him, was too much to bear, but before she could do anything about it, he ripped his mouth away. “No. I can’t.”
Then he was across the room, and she was left standing there with swollen lips and an ache between her legs she wasn’t sure would ever go away. Her heart was beating a mile a minute and she was struggling to catch her breath, but she knew she had to say something. Anything.
“Why?” It was the best she could do under the circumstances. She’d never been kissed like that before and he hadn’t even put his tongue inside her mouth.
Daniel looked at her. Pain, and what appeared to be regret, crossed his face. “I can’t,” he said again, then he darted out of the room.
Ali leaned back against the wall, attempting to settle her breathing and bring her heart rate back to normal. He’d kissed her. Kissed her, kissed her. Not a sweet peck on the lips like you’d give a friend, but a toe-curling kiss that had her wanting to sink to her knees in front of him.
Had Kim been right? Did he want her the way she wanted him?
The memory of his erection pressed against her suggested he did. But the look on his face and his declaration that he couldn’t, had her confused.
She sifted through everything she knew about him, but nothing stuck out. He wasn’t married anymore, but did he have a girlfriend she didn’t know about? If he did, Ali hadn’t seen any sign of her. Not at the club and not at his house.
Of course, she hadn’t been in his bedroom, but certainly there’d be a picture or some other evidence a woman had been in his home. Right?
Her head was beginning to hurt, and her stomach let out a growl, reminding her she hadn’t eaten dinner. She pushed off the wall and made her way down the hall.